Clarendon Studies in Criminology aims to provide a forum for
outstanding empirical and theoretical work in all aspects of criminology
and criminal justice, broadly understood. The Editors
welcome submissions from established scholars, as well as excellent
PhD work. The Series was inaugurated in 1994, with Roger
Hood as its first General Editor, following discussions between
Oxford University Press and three criminology centres. It is edited
under the auspices of these three centres: the Cambridge Institute
of Criminology, the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the
London School of Economics, and the Centre for Criminology at
the University of Oxford. Each supplies members of the Editorial
Board and, in turn, the Series Editor or Editors.
Peng Wang’s book The Chinese Mafia: Organised Crime,
Corruption and Extra- legal Protection, based on his PhD thesis
from King’s College London, gives an insight into what the world
might look like if the rule of law was only partially operational, or
indeed, broke down altogether. The need for extra- legal protection
and enforcement becomes evident. Wang’s book is not the first to
explore these issues. Gambetta’s (1993) The Sicilian Mafia traced
the role of a weak state, a weak judicial system, rampant corruption
and an urgent need to protect private property rights as the precursors
to the emergence of the Sicilian Mafia. Varese’s (2001) study of
the Russian Mafia documented similar themes. But Wang’s book is
based in China, where the authoritarian party- state is strong, albeit
seemingly not strong enough to resist the rise of a Chinese Mafia,
or protect its own government officials. Peng Wang is the first to
offer a scholarly account of the rise of the Chinese Mafia in the post
Mao- era. This is not a historical study of Chinese secret societies,
like the Shanghai Green Gang, or of the Triads. It is a contemporary
study of the collusion between organized crime and state corruption.
And one that was conducted at a time of massive economic
expansion in China, and during a period when China was reaching
out to world. The financial gains to be made were spectacular.